


Much Ado About Love

by Brit Hux-Tico (birchwoods01)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Genderbending, Gingerflower, Gingerose, Gingerrose - Freeform, Inspired by Shakespeare, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:28:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25268377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/birchwoods01/pseuds/Brit%20Hux-Tico
Summary: Hux and Rose have been enemies since the day they met, but that all changes when their friends play a prank on them.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rose Tico
Comments: 10
Kudos: 17





	Much Ado About Love

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to [Dianalynn1138](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dianalynn1138/pseuds/Dianalynn1138) and Huluppu for doing a beta read on this for me. 
> 
> This story is born out of my love of women and Gingerrose combining into something soft and sweet. I think some interesting things can be done by bending gender on characters, and a lady Hux will present new and interesting things, so you can likely expect more Lady Hux coming out of me! 
> 
> Enjoy. <3

Armelia Hux would rather be anywhere else. Preferably in her lab testing the harmful effects of radiation on her next engineering project for NASA, but anywhere else would do than at the rehearsal dinner for the wedding of co-workers Ben Solo and Rey Johnson.

It wasn’t the fact that she and Ben were exes with a messy break-up past. It wasn’t that she had hit on Rey before plenty of times and been shot down. It wasn’t even that weddings were dull and egregious affairs that propagated the most insidious lies about marriage.

It was that _she_ was here.

Rose Tico. The bane of her existence, the woman who protested Hux’s work due to ecological emissions harming the local mosquito population (really, who defend mosquito’s anyway?), the woman who had once bitten her on her finger at a party because she’d dared to wave it in her face as they argued, the woman who had turned her request to dance down the first time they’d met “on principal”.

Hux was doing her very best to stay sane and play nice, tapping her perfect red fingernails on the table as Finn, the man of honor, stood up to make a speech. When he was finished, the atmosphere of the dinner changed to one much more like a party, and Hux watched, her heart roiling with emotion, as Finn strolled over to the table Rose was seated at and leaned over her to whisper something in her ear, his eyes flicking up and landing on Hux’s.

She swallowed and turned her head quickly, her upper lip curled in distaste.

Swinging her sleek ginger bob out of the way as she rolled her shoulders into her black peacoat, she lowered her Louboutin shoes to the floor and stood from the bar stool, slinging her purse over her arm. As she raised her vodka martini to her red lips for one last sip, a heavy hand landed upon her shoulder, startling her and causing her to splutter and cough.

“Oh, sorry ‘bout that,” Poe Dameron uttered snarkily, pushing Hux around with his hand and taking a cloth napkin down the front of her black dress.

“I’m quite fine, Dameron,” Hux barked at him, snapping the cloth from his hands and dabbing at her stomach, where the majority of the mess was.

“You leaving?” the man asked with a grin, leaning a hip up along the bar and scratching his hands through his beard, examining her with a sneaky smile.

Hux had learned not to trust such an expression. She pursed her lips and examined him with narrowed eyes, trying to decide what he was up to.

“Yes,” she uttered tersely. “I will see you tomorrow at the nuptials.”

“Hey, wait,” Poe called as Hux made her way toward the door, holding her head high, her mouth curved into an expression as if she smelled something foul.

She stopped and turned to glare at him.

“What is it?”

Poe grinned wryly and glanced around the room, toward Rose who was standing with Finn, Rey, Paige, Jannah, and Phasma. The group downed a shot, laughed exuberantly, then refilled to do so again. Hux rolled her eyes.

“If it’s about Rose, I don’t want to hear it,” she uttered, sounding more tired than angry. “I already know about the passive aggressive tweets.”

Poe’s eyebrows jumped on his forehead. “Oh. You saw those? They were funny.”

“That woman is on a personal vendetta to destroy my reputation!” Hux quipped in defense of herself, drawing up to her full height, a gesture that always made her feel more powerful.

“Yeah, well… you kinda brought it on yourself for what you said at Phasma’s birthday party, but who’s counting?”

“I stand by every word that I said. She has absolutely no concept of radiative qualities as it pertains to thermodynamics, regardless of how knowledgeable she is in mechanical engineering,” Hux sniffed.

But her attention was drawn, once more, to the object of her frustration, her head turning to gaze across the room at the shorter woman. Her long, dark hair was pulled up today in an elegant bun, and she was wearing a sparkly blue dress that did wonderful things with her tan coloring, and her brown gaze was warm and fuzzy from the alcohol, her cheeks just barely pink.

An uncomfortably warm sensation fluttered in Hux’s stomach and she shifted, chalking it up to guilt. She had said some rather mean things to Rose in the past. Not that she hadn’t deserved them.

“Hurry and say what you need to, Dameron.” Hux steered the subject back to safer waters.

Or… so she thought.

Poe grinned, a twinkle of mischief in his eye.

“A little birdy told me…,” he began, gesturing toward Rose.

Hux followed his hand and looked back at the woman, shocked to find Rose looking up at her, too. Their eyes met, and a spark flew down Hux’s spine at the expression on her face- surprise, shock, wonder and… elation?

“… that Rose actually doesn’t hate you,” Poe continued, the mischievous grin taking on a darker, more excited look.

Hux did not notice. She was staring at Rose.

“Yes?” she prompted softly, her voice far away as she looked back at Poe. “Go on…?”

Poe studied Hux for a moment, delaying the delivery of the juicy details of his message, enjoying the prolonged silence.

“She loves you,” he uttered finally, one eyebrow quirked up on his forehead, his hands rubbing together at this delicious secret he had gotten to deliver.

“What.”

Hux couldn’t really feel her feet, having locked her knees, standing so still in stiletto heels. The numbness spread upward into her thighs as she began to panic.

“Yeah, she’s… she’s _in_ love with you,” Poe assured her with a nod, his silly expression dropping into seriousness. “Finn was helping her pack her things to move out of the apartment she shared with Rey and… and he found this notebook. She talked about you, how she wishes she could go back in time and fix your first meeting, how she really hates your occupation but thinks she could overlook it for her love for you.”

Hux stood very still in stunned silence, trying very hard to will her heart into submission, to stop it from beating so loudly, to stop her eyes from flitting across the room and landing on Rose, who, funnily enough, was doing the same.

The funny burning feeling from earlier was now becoming an erupting volcano in her gut, and Hux’s cheeks were warming, her heart spasming, her head spinning.

“She-… she actually… said all that?”

“Yeah, and more,” Poe smiled genuinely, crossing his arms over his chest. “She talked about your body…”

Hux’s face exploded in heat, and she turned her back on the crowd, on Rose, placing her trembling palms flat on the bar and staring at the grainy wood pattern.

There was no way Rose had said anything positive. All of her life, Hux had been told she was too tall for a woman, too thin, too bony, not pretty enough, not sexy. It had started with her drunk of a father and snowballed until it was all she could believe.

Very few people acknowledged her as beautiful.

Though… Rose hadn’t necessarily said _beautiful_.

“I’m sure-… sure she was making fun, merely,” Hux uttered, stumbling on her words. “I really must… exit, Dameron. Please.”

Poe shrugged, pushing away from the bar. “Finn read it to me. Didn’t sound like she was making fun.”

“You-… you cannot read the private thoughts of a female. How dare you?” Hux snapped, then, clutching her thin purse against her hip, charged from the hotel ballroom and into the blessed cool of the hall.

She marched down the hall at a confident pace, intent on making it to the elevators before running into any of the other guests.

Nothing made sense anymore, and Hux began to question whether or not she could actually trust the words of Poe Dameron. He wasn’t known to care for anyone but himself and those closest to him, but he also was not the type of person to go out of his way and lie about something this intense.

How could Rose be in love with her? They had known one another for three years now. Every interaction they’d had within the span of that time had been fueled with vitriolic hatred.

Rose was a spitfire of a woman who’d raged into her life and never ceased to continually come at her, relentlessly. Hux had always thought the visceral, physical response she felt to Rose was from rage, but was it possible… just maybe slightly possible it was something else?

Hux let out an anxious sigh as she punched the button of the elevator impatiently, shifting on her feet, longing to kick these shoes off and crawl into her plush, king size bed. At long last, the elevator lowered and, after a quick glance down the hall to be sure no one was following her, Hux stepped inside the empty car and pressed the button for her floor.

Once safely back in her room, Hux began to disrobe. The shoes came off first and were placed delicately within the hotel room closet on the shoe rack. She peeled off her black dress next, hanging it within the same location after smoothing it down to avoid wrinkles, muttering her dismay at the reek of alcohol in the cloth.

In the shower, Hux did her best to remove the negatives of the day, imagining the irritation of Poe, the unconscious jealousy of Ben and Rey, the… whatever she felt for Rose, all of it shed from her body and swirl down the drain.

Feeling renewed, refreshed, and reinvigorated, Hux exited the shower to ready herself for bed, drying her hair to prepare for styling the next day, brushing her teeth and flossing meticulously.

Not yet ready for sleep, Hux, clad in nothing but a pair of black panties, was taking a washcloth to the front of her alcohol ruined dress, doing her best to clean it without soaking it, as it was dry clean only, when a firm knock came at the door.

Hux froze, her mouth dry as cotton. She had a gut feeling, just knew who was on the other side of the door, and-

“Hux?” came the sound of Rose’s voice: soft, hesitant, and warm.

Hux stared at the door in horror, pressed her hands back through her hair, pulling slightly at it in aggravation, then ran to the drawers of the dresser and took out a silky black slip, hauling it over her head with shaking hands.

The room door was pulled open only a crack, the safety chain still engaged, and Hux’s seafoam green eyes peeped around the space.

Rose was also readied for bed, her hair on top of her head in a messy knotted bun, wearing an oversized, holey t-shirt and yellow shorts. She was holding her cell phone, the object trembling slightly in her hand, but her lips were pulled up in a half-hearted smile.

Rose had never looked at Hux like that.

It made her head spin.

“Y-yes…? What do you need?” Hux began awkwardly, looking anywhere but at Rose’s eyes because it was beginning to hurt to do so.

“Well, I… I have something on my phone I’d like to talk to you about. Would you mind if I come in?”

Hux’s eyes flicked back up to Rose, startled. This was a bad idea, a very bad idea indeed. She’d tried to spend a moment alone with Rose before and all it had resulted in was quite the vibrant argument.

But Rose’s generally feisty presence had lowered its defenses. This Rose seemed almost vulnerable, gentler, almost… curious.

It made Hux curious.

Without a word, she shoved the door shut and slid the safety chain out of place, pulling the door wide open again and standing back to let Rose enter.

“Whoa,” Rose commented as Hux closed the door behind her. “Haha, it’s so clean. You should see the room I’m sharing with Jannah…”

“I’m sure it’s _delightful_ ,” Hux uttered gently, emphasizing for sarcasm. But as Rose turned and gave her a sharp look, her eyebrows narrowed, Hux choked on her confidence and suddenly felt… guilty.

Why did she always feel the need to chastise Rose so?

She tried again.

“I-… so… what brings you here at this late hour?”

Rose crossed to the bed and plopped onto the end of it, leaning back on one arm as she lifted the lit phone screen, holding it up in the air.

“This,” she uttered gently, leveling a look upon the other female that made Hux feel like she was being measured for worthiness.

Hux swallowed and stepped toward the bed, taking the phone, as gingerly as possible, from Rose’s hand.

It was an article.

 **NASA Engineer** **Lobbies for Better Ecological Safety Standards** read the title.

Hux swallowed and looked away, handing the phone immediately back to Rose.

“Who told you?” Hux uttered sharply, crossing her arms.

The fabric on the bed rustled as Rose got to her feet.

“Finn,” she stated quietly.

Hux watched from the corner of her eye as Rose stepped closer.

“I see,” Hux muttered, focusing on the peculiar diamond pattern of the gray and black carpet. “It wasn’t-… wasn’t for you, really.”

“It wasn’t?” Rose stood still in front of Hux, peering up into her face, her fingers folded together to give her something to do with her hands.

“Of course not,” Hux answered her, backing a step away. “I merely… ran a test on emissions and discovered they were far too high to be considered reasonably safe, so I-,”

Rose was close again, too close, and Hux broke off, taking in a sharp breath as warm fingers latched onto her thin wrists, pulling her arms down, pulling her defenses down.

Warm hazelnut brown met seafoam green and Rose smiled with a bright exuberance, holding Hux’s wrists in both of her hands.

“And what made you decide to run that test in the first place?” she all but whispered.

Hux could barely feel her cheeks, they were numb now from the heat, and her heart was beating so rapidly, she felt faint.

“I don’t know what you’re implying,” she uttered stubbornly, attempting to pull away, but as she backed up, her butt bumped into the dresser, and Rose advanced anyway, her hands like cuffs locked around Hux’s wrists.

Hux went still as stone as the warm, soft curves of Rose’s body pressed against her bony, thin one, and the blood in her veins slowed as time itself when Rose’s arms wrapped right around her waist.

“I know everything, Hux,” Rose whispered, now getting up on her tiptoes to rest her chin against the space between Hux’s small breasts, peering up at her beneath her dark lashes. “You might as well admit it.”

“Wh-what?” Hux countered, finding the courage within to push away from the dresser, sending Rose toppling backward a step or two. Hux caught her arm and steadied her, then straightened to her full height and gave the shorter woman a sharp look.

“If you sent Poe to warm me up for some… bizarre love confession, then I don’t know what you expect,” Hux sneered at her as she crossed the room to the mini-bar, snatching a tiny bottle of scotch and unscrewing the lid with a scrunched up face of mild fury.

“What do you mean ‘send Poe’?” Rose countered, striding after her, hands fisted at her side. “I’m talking about what you told Finn to tell _me_!”

“ _I_ told _Finn_ to tell _you_?!” Hux responded with a dry laugh, waving the tiny bottle of scotch as she spoke. “And what is that? That I finally caved to your relentless bullying? That I finally listened to Queen Rose of all Righteousness?”

“No!” Rose shouted, completely disregarding that it was two in the morning and there were strangers in hotel rooms all around them. “That you’re in love with me.”

The accusation hung in the still silence between them, until Hux broke it with a single, humorless laugh.

“Well then,” Hux murmured breathlessly, shaking her head with disgusted humor as she turned and slapped the tiny bottle of scotch back on the bar. “That’s interesting, because Dameron told me, not even two hours ago, that _you_ were in love with _me._ ”

Rose’s face emptied of color, her mouth gaping in surprise, and she rocked back on her heels, pressing her palm to her forehead as she contemplated this new revelation.

“They-… this is… this is a joke?” she uttered softly, sounding very much like a child who’d woken up on Christmas morning to nothing but boxes of coal.

Hux softened at the disappointment in her voice, turned toward her just slightly, thought about reaching out, taking her hand, saying otherwise.

But what would be the point?

“We’ve been played, I’m afraid,” Hux said softly, surprised to hear the disappointment in her own voice, too.

Rose frowned and glanced up at Hux with a sheepish expression, pressing her lips thin together and breathing deep through her nose before making a popping sound with her mouth.

“Wow, this is…,” she began, but trailed off.

“Strange,” Hux offered with a little shrug of one shoulder, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Silly. I mean… you’ve hated me since the first moment-,”

“But I didn’t,” Rose interjected sharply, her brows knit together, her expression earnest. “Not at first, I just… you were so pompous and… rude, and so…”

Rose trailed off, unable to find the energy for insults anymore. She frowned.

“People… have said that about me, before. I suppose I … come off the wrong way,” Hux murmured. “But Finn and Poe… they’re-,”

“The worst!” Rose growled vehemently, rolling her eyes and making a mock punch through the air. “I’m gonna kick their asses. Damn them…”

Hux laughed slightly and nodded, her lips pulled in the tiniest of little smiles.

Rose stared at her for a long time.

Hux stared back.

“I should… go. It’s really late,” Rose gestured toward the alarm clock beside the bed. Hux glanced at the clock and nodded agreement, but Rose didn’t move.

They stared at one another in silence, locked in a stalemate, both hoping and wishing the other would move first.

After a moment, disappointment plain on her features, Rose turned and started for the door.

Hux followed her to the door, holding it open for her. But just as Rose started to step through the door, Hux reached out and stopped her, her fingers grasping the edge of Rose’s tee.

“I didn’t do it _for_ you, but… but because of you,” Hux answered in a rush, her long fingered hands twisted in the fabric as if afraid she’d run, her face flushed, expression emotional. “You-… you were right, about the emissions, and I was wrong. I’m sorry…”

Rose’s lips split into an enormous grin. She turned toward Hux, pulled the door out of her hand, and let it shut gently behind them.

Their eyes met, Hux’s slightly nervous, and she started to pull away again, but Rose snatched her hands once more.

“Don’t you dare pull away _now_ ,” Rose muttered forcefully.

Hux coughed a hollow sound of surprise as Rose pushed up onto her toes and pressed against her, their arms and legs tangling as Rose pushed her back into the room.

Off-balance and head spinning, Hux tried to push Rose away, just for a moment, her hand taking hers, but the other woman wasn’t having it, and let out a tiny laugh as she tried to snag a kiss, failing due to their height difference, so that the kiss landed on the curve of Hux’s neck.

The taller girl froze, her entire face pink, and she backed up toward the bed, lowering herself to a seat. Rose followed immediately, climbing up without hesitation into her lap, her knees on the bed.

“Are you sure?” Hux asked breathlessly as Rose took her cheeks in her palms, their mouths so close now.

Rose’s answer was a smile and the lightest, barest brush of a kiss across Hux’s mouth, one that resulted in a stream of shivers down her spine.

Hux pulled back to look into Rose’s eyes, every nerve ending tingling, her head spinning, and the warmth and joy she found there was enough to make her cry.

Rose kissed her again, this time with a firm power that Hux was unable to match, lips molded together in a fiery crucible of longing. As if she had wanted and waited for this, Rose explored the other woman’s mouth with an eager hunger, nipping at her full bottom lip, sighing as Hux parted to grant her access with her tongue, the sweet, delicate slip and slide of their brushing movements sending riotous pulses of pleasure radiating throughout her limbs and curling up leisurely between her legs. 

There was a hesitancy, though, in the way Hux touched her, her broad hands resting delicately, respectfully, on Rose’s thighs, and as Rose kissed, suckled, nipped, Hux shyly did her best to give it back, until she turned her face away, burning and hot and red all over, and pressed her cheek against Rose’s chest.

Rose’s smile gave all her feelings away, as she cupped a hand over Hux’s cheek and stroked her hair out of the way, understanding and gentle and warm, in love.

“Can I… sleep with you tonight?” Rose asked softly, two fingers sliding through the short ginger strands, the fragrance of her shampoo filling the air like some romantic aphrodisiac.

Hux hesitated, turning her face back up to Rose, her eyes revealing all of her hesitant vulnerability.

“I don’t think-,”

“Just sleep,” Rose insisted, running her fingers over Hux’s cheek, dancing over the purple shapes beneath her eyes, brushing her jawline.

As she did so, something changed in Hux’s expression, something remarkable, something trusting and eager appeared, and she nodded her acceptance.

Rose guided Hux into the bed, the sheets and comforter pulled back, and as they lay down and the lights were turned low, Hux was keeping her distance, ever afraid. But as Rose moved closer, as she pressed her body up behind the tall, thinner woman, and wrapped her arms around her waist, her rigid, stiff posture relaxed within moments and melted into one as malleable as putty.

One unable to stop touching and the other starved for it, Rose ran her hands through Hux’s hair, her lips close to her ear, every now and then pressing light, butter soft kisses to her neck and shoulder. Hux held tight to Rose’s arm around her waist as if afraid letting go would cause her to vanish.

In the dark they whispered the sweetest things, things they had thought but never been able to say.

The wedding reception was a loud and ridiculous affair, growing more and more so as the drinks continued to pour. The dance floor was raucous with wild moves and the insanity of motion, Finn and Poe leading most of the commotion themselves to help celebrate the newly married couple.

But Hux, ever in opposition of such wild behavior, did not even notice. Her hands were on a soft waist, her eyes beholding the most gorgeous creature she had ever known as Rose laughed and smiled, just for her.

“I wondered if you were into me,” Rose joked, her arms wrapping around Hux’s neck as she pulled in closer, the two of them swaying in time to the music.

“I sometimes caught you staring at my ass,” Rose whispered into Hux’s ear, ending with a little nip to her earlobe.

Hux burned dark red and shook her head in an emphatic “no”.

“Absolutely not, I have never-,”

But she cut off as Finn and Poe approached, looking incredibly pleased with themselves.

Rose pulled away from Hux, looking as murderous as someone small and adorable as she could look.

Poe had the decency to flinch as she raised a fist, but Finn caught her wrist with a laugh.

“Hey, we did you a favor,” Finn teased, using his grip on Rose’s arm to turn her into a spin. As he released, she tipped back against Hux, who caught her under her arms.

The two women flushed, but Rose pressed eagerly into Hux’s embrace, turning to narrow a glare on Finn and Poe.

“We might have… y’know, eventually. Right, Hux?” Rose turned her face up to her.

But Hux was looking at her in slight awe, her arms still around her, and she shook her head slightly.

“I’m… actually quite thankful,” Hux breathed as quiet as can be, loathe to have to admit it to either of the men responsible, but not so hesitant to tell her: the woman of her dreams.

Rose’s face lit up with radiant joy. She leaned up on her toes and gave Hux a quick peck on the lips, ever aware that this crazy woman she’d fallen in love with was likely a bit of a public prude.

“We forgive you,” Rose uttered smugly to the men, waving her hand at them in dismissal. “Now leave us alone.”

Finn and Poe laughed at this and went away, arm in arm, congratulating themselves for being such excellent matchmakers.

“Funny how they knew,” Rose remarked, tone curious, as Hux spun her slowly around in time to the music, their bodies again closer, arms held tight, neither willing to be far from the other.

Hux’s gaze darted around the room to see if anyone was watching, then lowered her head toward Rose’s which was just in reach below hers and pressed a soft kiss there at her hairline.

“Knew what?” she asked in a soft voice.

Rose pulled back, her gaze molten and affectionate, her hand sliding up Hux’s neckline to hold her there.

“That I love you…,” Rose admitted on a held breath, the fear of rejection evident in her tone.

Hux stopped their dance motions, their feet stilling on the dance floor, and looked at Rose with a raw and open expression on her face, her eyes shining as if she might cry.

“You… really?” she whispered, disbelieving.

“I really,” Rose confirmed, desperate.

The two women leaned closer.

“… I love you, too,” Hux expelled on a breath.

The two women stared at one another, breathing in time, the world around them silent and still as if they were the only two in the room. Rose moved first, pulling away and grabbing Hux by the hand, kissing her knuckles.

“Come with me,” she murmured silkily, guiding Hux from the reception hall.

“Where are we going?” Hux had an idea and a hope, but was so afraid the last twenty-four hours had been a dream that at any moment she would wake up.

But as they slipped back into her hotel room, the magic continued, and Rose showed her just how real this tentative bloom between them could be, if only they would reach out and embrace it.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments keep authors fed and willing to write! If you liked this, please leave a comment, even if it's just an emoji expressing your feelings! 
> 
> You can follow me on [ Twitter](https://twitter.com/ardentlyloveyou)! Thanks for reading!


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